The present invention generally relates to gathering and subsequently transmitting network communication data to an end-user. More particularly, the present invention relates to providing a record of network communications made to and from an end-user.
Although network communication providers process all network communication data, only a portion of the entire available data is used, and for limited purposes. Network communication providers offer their end-user clients call traffic information only for billable communication from a voice-based source (e.g., long-distance telephone communications). This data often includes call start and end time, duration of the call, incoming caller name and telephone number, and outgoing called number. In addition to end-user purposes, network providers often collect some of the available data for their own purposes to diagnose system problems or to monitor system activity.
To date, however, network providers have not provided other segments of available data to their end-user clients in order to detail all communication activity sent to and received by the end-user. Thus, while network providers often supply an end-user with a detailed record of communications from voice-based telephony sources initiated by the end-user, other activities go unaccounted. For example, information regarding time spent listening to voice messages, receiving fax transmissions, or attending xe2x80x9cWeb meetingsxe2x80x9d are not provided to the end-user. Yet, information regarding these other communication activities is important to an accurate account of time management or time verification functions. Moreover, network providers already process the network data associated with these activities.
It would thus be advantageous to collect and provide to end-users data for all communications made to and from them. It would be further advantageous to provide this data in a format most useful to the end-users.
The present invention provides a device for providing communications data to an end-user. The device comprises a storage unit coupled to a transmitter. The storage unit collects the end-user""s data from a plurality of sources. The data may be transmitted to the storage unit by the sources using either wired or wireless techniques. The transmitter sends the communications data to the end-user. The system may-further comprise a converter coupled to the storage unit. The converter translates the communications data into a format useable by the end-user. The data may be transmitted to the end-user using either wired or wireless transmission techniques. The data sent to the end-user includes completed communications as well as those attempted but not completed.
According to another aspect of the invention, a data retrieval system is provided that automatically provides time management reports to a plurality of end-users. Each time management report comprises information about communications made to and from a particular end-user. The information is gathered from a plurality of sources and may include data sufficient to identify, for each communication involving a particular end-user, communication start time, communication end time, duration of communication, originator""s identification, receiver""s identification, and communication type. The information may further comprise the content of the communication and any data entered by the end-user. The end-user entered data may be entered during or after the communication to which it relates. The plurality of sources may include the following: central office messaging system, central office switch, wireless switch, fax server, paging server, short message server, radio transmission, e-mail server, Internet server, and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) server.
Other features of the present invention are described below.